I believer only Ebay knows. this was changed several years back, now when bidding you see only your name and what every Ebay came up with to keep you from seeing who other bidders are. they don't want the bidders to correspond with each other. keeps the bidding high, back when I knew who I was bidding against I was more than likely to quit bidding. no use in running up a lot you want get. lot of deep pockets on Ebay, especially in the area of some of my interests. now I just bid and stop when I think it not worth it to me.